Snowboard Program

From U.S. Ski & Snowboard:

Gould Academy has produced key athletes for years and saw abundant success in the 2022-23 season. U.S. Snowboard Team snowboardcross rider and Gould graduate Tyler Hamel ’22 won the overall NorAm Cup Tour for the second time, and Nathan Pare came in third in the overall snowboardcross NorAm Cup standings. Gould also had six riders qualify for Junior World Championships and scored 16 podium finishes at NorAms, among many other highlights.

Gould is thrilled to announce that Snowboardcross (SBX) racers Bri Schnorrbusch ’24, Tyler Hamel ’22, and Nathan Pare ’23 have been named to the U.S. Snowboard Team! Bri and Tyler were named to the SBX Pro Team, while Nate secured a spot on the SBX Development Team.

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Anna Yoshie Yamada is the first female snowboard program director at Gould Academy. She started her coaching career here at Gould in 2020 as the prep snowboarding coach. Traveling with the competition snowboard team that following summer, Yamada started coaching under the guidance of KC Gandee and took on a new role as the Development coach for the 2021/2022 season. Coaching on the North American Cup Series Tour, Yamada took her previous racing knowledge and applied it to her own athletes.  A familiar face to those who have been at USASA nationals competing and working, Yamada is a six-time national champion in Boardercross, Giant Slalom, and Slalom. She was the starter at PSL from 2016 to 2019. Yamada competed as part of Team USA at the University World Games in 2015 on the Snowboardcross Team. Yamada then stepped into the role of the Traveling FIS Snowboardcross Coach in the 2022/2023 season that had her coaching primarily on the North American Cup Tour throughout the US and Canada, plus Europa Cups in Austria and France, and regional and national events hosted by USASA. Yamada capped her 3rd season of coaching with an invite from the US Snowboard Team to coach Team USA at the 2023 Junior World Championships in Passo San Pellegrino, Italy.

Coach Holzweiss graduated from Gould Academy in 2002 and served the Gould community as a Weekend Coach for eight years before beginning to coach full-time in 2014. Dustin has proven himself an incredibly versatile coach by leading the development team, FIS SBX squad and now as the FIS Slopestyle coach since 2018, a role that he truly loves. Coach Holzweiss is USASA and US Ski and Snowboard Team Level 300 certified and works as a chef for the US Ski and Snowboard Moguls Team in the off season as well as doing couples yoga with his wife Sarah.

Coach Gandee brings over 20 years of experience to the Gould Academy Competition Program’s Snowboard Team. A graduate of Eastern Mennonite University, he earned a degree in management and organizational development and later spent 10 years working at resorts including Stratton, Okemo, Killington, Northstar, and Sierra at Tahoe. Most recently, he was the Snowboard Program Director at Killington Mountain School in Vermont. Coach Gandee’s list of credentials is extensive. In addition to being on the AASI National Team from 2004 until 2008, he is Level III certified, an examiner for the American Association of Snowboard Instructors (AASI), and a USSA Level 300 SBX Coach and Level 200 Aerials coach. Gandee is a major contributor to US Ski and Snowboard Team projects, including the new Level 100 and 200 coach education material, and is developing the new level 300 SBX certification program. KC has coached US Project Gold SBX for 5 years and worked as a consultant for High Cascade Snowboard Camp in Oregon running their SBX/SX program. In his spare time, he also served as the coach representative on the USASA Board of Directors from 2012 to 2018. When not coaching (or preparing to coach), Coach Gandee spends time on the mountain bike trails of New England. He is an avid rock climber and loves exploring rivers and lakes with his wife, Courtney, and their two golden retrievers.